August 2013 – John Congdon

My Drama Filled Day: How A Bad Remark About My SDPHP Usergroup Set Me Off

I had a bad day on Thursday, here’s why…

Just clearing the air here. Ranting on my personal website, with views from the way I see them.

So I had some personal business to handle this morning and was gone for half the day. I get back home and have to get to work done, so I get down to it and work with my boss to launch some new code and do other tasks.

I then find out that this morning there was a ton of drama due to the presentation on Laravel 4 at SDPHP last night. The presenter Chris A Moore (@CAMDesigns) did an amazing job. I told him right afterwards that fact, and he did what most presenters do and doubted himself. There were a lot of questions asked, that for the most part he could handle. There were a few that he didn’t know, and this bothered him. I can appreciate wanting to be able to answer them, but it doesn’t always happen that way.

He then followed up with the creator of Laravel (@taylorotwell) to get the other questions answered. Which is the right thing to do. However, he made the mistake of saying he was heckled (which he definitely was not), and Taylor proceeded to call our group a “shit user group”. This group means everything to me and for someone to put it down really offended me (and a bunch of my members). I took this personally and proceeded to tell my friends… via twitter.

Did I over react? Maybe…

Chris and I discussed this whole ordeal via IRC and he admitted to having been wrong, and he apologized to the group in IRC. I appreciated it very much.

However, because I aired this in public on Twitter, I don’t think the drama is over. And I am sure this post won’t help much….

Being a 1099 Contractor And Working From Home

I am very lucky in the fact that I get to work remotely from home. This comes with pros and cons, but for me the pros far outweigh the cons.

I have a very supportive wife that understands that when I am in my office (at work), that I am working and not just hanging out at the house. She doesn’t ask me to do chores, try to make small talk, or bother me in any way. I hear from far too many developers that they couldn’t work from home because their significant other wouldn’t treat it like a job.

At the same time, you have to make an effort to separate work/home life. You have to walk away for some time to clear your head and have family time. Some people that work at home feel like they are ALWAYS at work, and get burnt out.

I am employed as a 1099 contractor, and wanted to share some things to consider for people new to it.

1. Make sure your pay level is equivalent to what you feel it should be. You will be responsible for additional taxes that you have not had to pay in the past.

2. Make sure your pay is high enough to cover your benefits. As a 1099 contractor, you will probably not have any benefits being provided to you, such as health insurance, retirement, etc…

3. Talk to a tax professional right away. Don’t wait for the following tax season, otherwise you will probably be faced with some penalties. As a contractor, you have to pay estimated taxes 4 times a year.

4. Speaking of, make sure to put enough money aside to pay your taxes. The pay you receive has not been taxed, so take time to put some money into another account automatically, so when if comes time to pay them, you are not caught off guard. I have heard from some people that didn’t do this and they are paying penalties to the IRS years later.